CASTINE--The Maine Maritime Academy women's volleyball team used a balanced offense and sound defense to sweep visiting Husson University 25-11, 25-17, 25-11 to capture the North Atlantic Conference East Division title at Smith Gymnasium on Sunday, advancing to the NAC Championship next weekend at West Division champion SUNY-Cobleskill.

The East No. 1 seeded Mariners, who have won 14 of their last 17 outings, improve to 17-10 overall, while the No. 3 Eagles see their season end at 9-16.

Maine Maritime Highlights

• The Mariners outhit Husson .298 to minus-.050, totaled 10 team blocks and dug 54 balls (compared to 39 digs for HU).
• Junior Ila Smith led all attackers with nine kills and hit .500 on 16 swings. She also had two blocks.
• Sophomore Ally Hadley (7 kills, 3 service aces, 3 blocks, 10 digs) and senior Katie Albritton (3 aces, 6 digs) directed the offense with 17 and 12 assists, respectively.
• Senior Chloe Weeks led all student-athletes with six total blocks and added seven kills (.375) and four digs.
• Sophomore Sydney Williams chipped in seven kills and five blocks (2 solo).
• Freshman Hannah Tate contributed a match-best 13 digs.

Husson Highlights

• Mikayla Gray led the team with six kills and 10 digs, while Alyvia McIntyre added to the offense with 11 assists.
• Beatrice Tursi contributed nine digs and three assists.

First Set

• The Mariners stormed to a blazing start with an 8-1 lead before Husson called a timeout. Williams had a couple kills and MMA took advantage of three Eagles attack errors during the run.
• Leading 15-7, MMA ended the opening frame by scoring 10 of the final 14 points to go up 1-0 in the match.
• Maine Maritime hit .310 and held Husson to minus-.182.

Second Set

• Maine Maritime held leads of 6-1, 9-2 and 12-4, and never looked back.

Third Set

• Husson took its first (and only) lead of the afternoon on an ace from Regan Libby to give the Eagles a 3-2 advantage.
• But MMA had a response by scoring the next four points to go up 6-3.
• The Mariners eventually built their advantage to 15-7 before going on an 8-3 run to take a commanding 23-10 edge.
• Maine Maritime's offense was at its best in the decisive frame to the tune of a .391 attack percentage; Husson hit minus-.040.

Beyond the Boxscore

• Maine Maritime is seeking its 11th NAC Championship, with the last occurring in 2022.
• MMA is now 15-5 in three-set matches and 9-1 at home.
• The Eagles trail in the all-time series to the Mariners, 41-9, including a 26-match losing streak.
• The Mariners have made the conference finals in every season since 2007 (no championship held in the 2020 COVID year).

Next Up

• On Saturday at a start time to be determined, Maine Maritime will travel to Cobleskill, N.Y., to square off against the Fighting Tigers who upset West regular-season winner SUNY-Delhi in five sets today on the road.